Temaru toys with French Polynesia election boycott

French Polynesia's president, Oscar Temaru, has not ruled out boycotting next year's territorial elections as his party continues to object to the new electoral system.

He says there will be discussions on whether to stand in the elections due in April and May.

Walter Zweifel reports.

"France changed Tahiti's electoral system four times in eight years and Oscar Temaru says the latest one, adopted by Paris last year, is not fair. It provides for two rounds of voting, with party lists needing at least 12.5 percent of the votes to make it to the second round. The winning list in the second round will, however, get as a bonus a third of all seats in the 57-member assembly, with the remainder then distributed according to the lists' relative strength. Mr Temaru claims that the latest change, devised during the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, is aimed at keeping him out of office."